Traditional gaming environments have conventionally been restricted to bars, arcades, homes, and other public and private establishments. Outside such gaming environments, players have been commonly restricted to playing board games, local computer games, TV-supported video games, etc. However, with the widespread use of standardized large-scale wide area networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web in recent years, players of video and computer games at home are offered an environment to access numerous games and compete with each other. A player can connect a home computer, video game console, set top box, or other device to the Internet using telephone lines, cable TV lines, or other connections to the home. The player can thus play games offered to the player from a remote server or other source. The player can also compete or otherwise interact in a game with hundreds or even thousands of other players who are also connected to the Internet.
However, although a wide array of options are available for home game players, players typically cannot play games from home to receive prizes. Players may often desire to receive a prize after playing a game or participating in a tournament, but no standardized prize redemption system is provided to home players. Any administrator of such a prize redemption system faces problems when attempting to organize ticket winnings and offer prizes at ticket costs adjusted for a desired profitability.
One problem with the network games of the prior art is that maintaining a redemption system can be very involving for an entity which maintains a web site, to the point of being burdensome. For example, operators must maintain a system of prize tracking and delivery for a large pool of users. Requiring even greater maintenance is the setting and adjustment of prize credit costs or prices of the prizes. The operator must determine how many prize credits are awarded, on average, by each game on the network and then determine the price of each prize in terms of prize credits and in view of a desired profitability level.
There is thus a need for an effective system of enabling prize redemption with games which are distributed, executed, and managed over a wide area network.